One of the highlights of the two-story Dutch Colonial the couple found in the south suburbs was its large basement.
With three kids, the couple had plans to convert the basement space into a family area complete with an entertainment center and a workout room.
Two months after moving into the house, however; the couple had second thoughts. A heavy spring rain brought water into the basement. At first, it was a small trickle coming from under the basement stairs.
As a storm continued, however, the trickle became a steady stream that snaked for more than a day across the basement floor to a floor drain.
Basement seepage, and the occasional basement flood, are common Chicago problems, and quirky ones: One house may be deluged with water in a basement yet a neighbor’s may stay bone dry, say officials.
“It’s unpredictable,” says Angel Martin, the supervisory hydrologist for the U.S. Geological Survey Illinois District in Springfield. “And water may get into a basement because of the age of the basement, the engineering of it or the size of it.”
“Even a new house can have basement water problems,” says Mike Kertez, a spokesman for the City of Chicago’s Department of Sewers.
And for those homes with a finished basement, even a small amount of water can be extremely harmful, causing hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars in damage. Basement seepage and flooding can also cause health concerns (if rainwater mixes with sanitary sewer wastewater) or present a danger because of electrical shock.
Basements flood or leak, say the experts, because they’re below grade or partially underground.
There are two ways water gets into the basement (and some homes suffer from both). Here’s the first: it can come up through a floor drain (or the drain of a sink or a toilet), especially in neighborhoods where sanitary and rainwater sewers are combined, such as most neighborhoods in Chicago.
When rainwater overwhelms a sewer system via drain openings on the street, that water can back up into a home’s drain pipe. This can result in serious flooding, with several inches or several feet of water entering the basement through that floor drain.
In a few years, homeowners in Chicago may no longer have to worry about such flooding. The city has begun its Rainblocker program, in which vortexes are being installed in city street catch basins, which will slow down the flow of rainwater into drain pipes, says Kertez.
The program, which will be completed in four years, should alleviate basement backups, he adds.
Water can also enter basements through cracks in the foundation walls. This is known as seepage and because it’s mostly rainwater, it’s less of a sanitary concern than a sewer backup. Seepage occurs when water collects on a sidewalk or driveway next to a basement foundation wall, or when the ground around a foundation wall becomes saturated with rainwater.
Seepage is not as damaging as floor drains backing up but can still cause major damage to carpets, furniture, drywall and paneling in a basement.
There are several ways to address basement flooding and seepage.
With drain backups, for example, a homeowner can install a standpipe. A standpipe is a wide diameter pipe inserted into the floor drain. Once the below-ground water backs up into the drain, the water moves up into the standpipe, staying contained in that pipe versus entering the basement.
Standpipes are either screwed or dropped into the basement drain opening. In some cases, it may require a coupling available at most hardware or plumbing stores.
A homeowner must decide whether to leave a standpipe in year-round, where it could be in the way of walking path, or be around to place it in the floor drain in the event of a rainstorm.
Standpipes should be no taller than 18 inches, said Kertez. “Otherwise you risk the floor cracking because of the pressure of the water below it,” he says.
Another possible remedy to drain openings is a drain plug. “The plugs are set up to pop open again if there’s too much water pressure so that the floor doesn’t crack,” says Kertez.
Another prevention method is a sewer or check valve, installed on the underground drain pipe that is connected to the basement floor drain.
There are manual and automatic valves. Basically what they do is restrict the flow of the water so that it runs away from the house. “A sewer valve can be a great device but expect to pay anywhere from $2,500 to $6,000 to have one installed,” says Kertez.
Another solution is an overhead sewer, which is more costly (they start at about $10,000) but guarantees water will not back up into a basement. It especially makes sense if the basement is finished and has a bathroom.
With this system, basement sewage is collected in a tank and then pumped out by a motorized ejector pump through an overhead pipe that prevents any backup.
Homeowners should also check to make sure their home’s downspouts are not tied into their drain pipe. If the downspouts travel down into the ground, there’s a good chance that they are connected to the underground drain pipe.
“During a heavy rain, if you have six 3-inch downspouts pouring water from the roof into one 6-inch drain pipe, well that’s too much water for that 6-inch pipe to handle,” said Kertez. “As a result, the water could back up that drain pipe and up out of the floor drain.”
The solution here is disconnecting the downspouts from the drain pipe. Start by cutting a downspout about a foot above where it enters the ground. Install an elbow connector at the cut, and then add an extension pipe to the elbow so that water from the downspout is directed away from the house.
“Remember not to point the pipe so that it floods your neighbor’s driveway or yard,” says Kertez.
There’s a couple of ways to address seepage coming in through cracks in the walls and floors of the basement, say the experts.
The most common is to have the walls and floor sealed, preferably from the outside and the inside.
“There are a number of companies that do basement waterproofing with this method but I would carefully check them out,” says Kertez.
It can also be an expensive process to have done professionally, costing at least several thousand dollars.
To seal the walls, a firm will excavate the dirt around a home’s foundation, cover the exterior of the foundation with a waterproof seal and then replace the dirt.
“You not only pay for the waterproofing but you may pay for the loss of shrubbery or plants that are dug up around the building,” said Kertez.
A homeowner can also opt for the less expensive method of sealing from the inside, an easy job for the do-it-yourselfer.
This requires cleaning the basement walls, and then filling any large cracks with hydraulic cement. Then, you can apply a coat of waterproof sealing paint to the interior foundation wall.
A homeowner can also minimize seepage by making sure the ground, sidewalks and driveways slope away from the house, so that rainwater is directed away from the foundation.
Also, make sure gutters are clean. Otherwise, rainwater will pour over the sides, saturating the ground next to the foundation walls.
